Middle East, Textile; tapestry woven, Turkey, 1850-1875

Carpet, tapestry-woven wool, flatweave, Turkish, mid-19th century
WARP: white, Z2S; 6 threads per inch (22 per dm).
WEFT: wool; 9 colours: red, yellow, green, blue, light blue, dark brown, brown, light brown, white; Z-spun, unplied; 22-26 wefts per inch (100-106 per dm).
SIDE FINISH: returned weft
END FINISH: Lower: Missing; Upper: 1" (2cms) plainweave with paired weft in white wool; fringe of twisted warp loops 2" (5 cms) long.
DESIGN: Field: blue ground with 17 bands of serrated leaves in most colours, offset and lying in diagonal lines of one colour parallel to the four sides of the central medallion. Between each band of leaves are two bands of small blocks paired by colour. Extending to all four sides is a diamond shaped medallion, the centre having a red ground of 4 pendants and having a yellow, a blue andan outer yellow border of the same shape; borders (1) and (3) containing diamond motifs, borders (2) and (4) stylised flowers on stalks. The outermost four pendants being trefoils.
Main border: dark brown ground with horizontal white dividing lines on the sides which form a central stem on the lower and upper border; from it a pair of white stems hold two stylised tulips. There are also leaves and buds. In the lower and upper, the blossoms vary.
Inner and outer borders: white ground with a dark brown zigzagged stem with short horizontal lines (along the sides) lying across variously coloured stylised leaves. Along the upper and lower ends the stem curves into a meander with the leaves attached.

Catalogue Date: 5.5.98

Kelims are tapestry-woven. This is a weft-faced plain weave in which the weft passes over and under alternate warp threads and conceals the warp. Unlike pile carpets, the weaver works from the back of the fabric and the weft does not pass continuously from side-to-side but is worked backwards and forwards in small areas to create the blocks of colour required by the design. In its simplest form this produces a vertical slit between the differently coloured areas and these make kelims vulnerable to wear. By using a design such as this, with as many diagonal lines as possible, the weavers are able to avoid large slits between blocks of different colour.

456-1884